This paper explores diachronic shifts in the literal and intensifying uses of dood 'dead' in the Dutch fake reflexive resultative construction. Without sufficient context, a clause like Hij werkte zich dood (lit. 'He worked himself dead') is ambiguous in that it is unclear whether dood expresses an actual result of the activity denoted by the verb or whether it intensifies that verbal activity. We will investigate shifts in the (relative) type and token frequencies of both subtypes over the last two centuries and show that the intensifying use has become predominant. Particular attention is paid to the notion of productivity, which may help us to elucidate the possible pathways along which dood -in its function as an intensifier -is moving. By taking into account the variety of verbs that dood has occurred with since the early 19th Century, we aim to assess whether the dramatic increase in relative frequency of intensifying dood is paralleled by a concomitant extension of its collocational range or, conversely, whether this increase in frequency is mainly due to the rise of some highly frequent collocations.

This paper focuses on the intensifying use of the fake reflexive resultative construction,as demonstrated in the example Hij lacht zich een breuk om die mop (tit. 'He laughs himselfa fracture because of that joke'). Although the literal use of the (English) fake reflexiveresultative construction has been the subject of several studies, scant attention hasbeen paid to the potential of this construction for conveying an intensifying meaning,though these intensifying uses show an intriguing mix of productivity and lexical idiosyncrasythat deserves careful analysis. This case study will zoom in on the use of theintensifying fake reflexive resultative construction in present-day Belgian and NetherlandicDutch. The analysis will reveal some discrepancies between two national variants ofDutch and shed light on the development of subschemas displaying various degrees ofproductivity on the one hand and the possible lexicalisation of strong combinations on theother.

This paper takes a dynamic perspective on constructional networks by investigating which factors play a role in the architecture of the network and how its internal structure may be reorganized over time. It starts from the idea that the network hierarchy is constantly being reconfigured: new generalizations may give rise to new subschemas, and existing subschemas can move up to a higher level or, conversely, subschemas may marginalize and eventually disappear completely. Such network shifts typically involve changes in schematicity (viz. the level of abstractness) and/or productivity (viz. the extensibility of the (sub)schema). An ideal candidate to investigate these productivity shifts and internal reorganizations is the Dutch intensifying fake reflexive resultative construction. In present-day Dutch, the network of this construction displays an intriguing combination of subschemas at different levels of abstraction, displaying varying degrees of productivity, as well as conventionalized or even fossilized micro-constructions. Tracing back the recent history of this construction, the paper aims to show how mechanisms like schematization and conventionalization work together in creating the constructicon’s network structure, and how certain constructional changes can be (re)interpreted as shifts within the constructional network. It will be discussed what new insights can be gained from such a network approach and which further steps may be taken to further flesh out the theory on constructional networks.